Known touch-sensitive surfaces, such as those used for touch screens when operating in certain modes, detect user contact at particular locations of the surface and interpret the contacts as character inputs. In many embodiments, the electronic devices that have touch-sensitive surfaces do not offer additionally a conventional keyboard, such as a QWERTY keyboard, as an input device. Accordingly, the size of the electronic device is conveniently reduced.
However, if the QWERTY keyboard is replaced by an image on the touch screen surface of the keys in the QWERTY pattern, a user finds it much more difficult to align his/her fingers with the keys than to align fingers to a keyboard. The user needs to constantly look at the screen key images, so replacing a QWERTY keyboard with an image of the keyboard on a touch screen becomes an uncomfortable way to input characters for an extended amount of time. The problem becomes even greater for visually-impaired users who would not be able to see the image of the virtual QWERTY keyboard.
As alternative to modeling QWERTY keyboards, some electronic devices distinguish between sliding and non-sliding finger contacts to discern character input. However, due to the number of characters that a user may want to input into an electronic device, such as enough for a complete alphabet, a large number of unique surface contacts, such as slide-up or slide-right, must be available to the user. The user is then faced with either the task of committing to memory a large number of unique motions (contacts) or frequently referencing a key to the motions, which if on a display of the electronic device limit the available screen space for other uses. Additionally, many times the motions are non-intuitive and uncomfortable for users, such as motions requiring users to twist their fingers and hands in unusual or unnatural positions.
Ideas to aid the “training phase” in which the user memorizes the motions for characters include associating characters with motions that resemble the character. For example, a circular motion may be associated with a zero or the letter “O” and a downward motion may be associated with a one or the letter “I.” However, if all unique motions for input characters were to resemble the associated characters, many would be cumbersome, uncomfortable, and tiring for uses of long durations.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a form of touch input in which the contacts required for the input characters were relatively easy or intuitive to remember and also were comfortable, arranged in a way that enables true touch-typing and thus conducive to use for long periods of time. However, no such device, system, method for such touch input is known to the present inventor.